Carlo Bonomi (12 March 1937 – 6 August 2022) was an Italian voice actor and clown who was best known for his voiceover work as the voice of Mr. Linea in the animated series '' La Linea'' as well as Pingu and various other characters in series 1-4 of the stop-motion children's television series of the same name.

Career

Bonomi voiced many characters for the Italian advertising show ''

Carosello ''Carosello'' () was an Italian television advertising show broadcast on RAI from 1957 to 1977. The series mainly showed short sketch comedy films using live action, various types of animation, and puppetry. It had an audience of about 20 milli ...

''. The language of noises he had developed and used for the earlier

Osvaldo Cavandoli Osvaldo Cavandoli (1 January 1920 – 3 March 2007), also known by his pen name Cava, was an Italian cartoonist. His most famous work is his series of short animated cartoons, '' La Linea'' ("The Line"). Early life, family and education Cavandol ...

's '' La Linea'' from 1971 to 1986 was reinterpreted for the acclaimed TV series ''

Pingu ''Pingu'' is a stop-motion children's television series co-created by Otmar Gutmann and Erika Brueggemann. It was originally produced from 1990 to 2000 by Swiss company The Pygos Group (originally called Trickfilmstudio) for SF DRS in Switzerl ...

'' on

SF DRS Schweizer Fernsehen (SF; "Swiss Television") is the German-language division of SRG SSR, in charge of production and distribution of television programmes in Switzerland for German-speaking Switzerland. It has its head office in Zürich. ...

during its first four seasons produced between 1990 and 2000, where Bonomi voiced all the characters without a script. His

grammelot Grammelot (or gromalot or galimatias) is an imitation of language used in satirical theatre, an ''ad hoc'' gibberish that uses prosody along with macaronic and onomatopoeic elements to convey emotional and other meaning, and used in association w ...

was originally intended to be a parody of the

Milanese dialect Milanese (endonym in traditional orthography , ') is the central variety of the Western dialect of the Lombard language spoken in Milan, the rest of its metropolitan city, and the northernmost part of the province of Pavia. Milanese, due to t ...

, and it was inspired by three abstract languages traditionally used by clowns in France and Italy. When in 2003 the show's rights were acquired by

HIT Entertainment HIT Entertainment Limited (commonly written as HiT) was a British-American entertainment company founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of The Jim Henson Company, by Jim Henson, Peter Orton, and Soph ...

, Bonomi was replaced by London-based voice actors

David Sant David Sant (born 1968) is a Spanish mime artist, acrobat, puppeteer, stuntman, director, actor and writer. Early life and career Sant was born in Spain in 1968. He discovered the theatre at the age of seventeen thanks to his literature teach ...

and Marcello Magni. In 1984 he provided the laughter voices for the cartoon series ''Stripy.'' In 1985 he recorded the railway announcements for the central station of Milan which remained in use until 2008. Bonomi was also very active as a voice actor in Italian radio dramas, and was the Italian voice for several popular cartoon characters, including

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

and

Fred Flintstone Fred Flintstone is the main character of the animated sitcom '' The Flintstones'', which aired during prime-time on ABC during the original series' run from 1960 to 1966. Fred is the husband of Wilma Flintstone and father of Pebbles Flintsto ...

. In 2008 he acted the voices for the yellow tribe in ''

Spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, f ...

'', which was also his final role before his retirement from acting later that year.

Death

Bonomi died on 6 August 2022 in his home town in

Milan, Italy Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

, at the age of 85.

Filmography

Film

*'' La sexilinea'' (1972) – La Linea *'' Mr. Rossi Looks for Happiness'' (1976) – Additional voices *'' Mr. Rossi's Dreams'' (1977) – Additional voices *'' Mr. Rossi's Vacation'' (1978) – Additional voices

Animation

*'' La Linea'' (1971–1986) – La Linea *''

Calimero ''Calimero'' is an animated television series about a charming, but hapless anthropomorphized chicken; the only black one in a family of yellow chickens. He wears half of his egg shell still on his head. Calimero originally appeared on th ...

'' (1972–1975) – Paperazzi * '' The Red and the Blue'' (1976-2005) – Red / Blue *''Stripy'' (1984) – Stripy / All characters *''

'' (1990–2000) – Pingu / All characters (voice) *'' Pingu: A Very Special Wedding'' (1997) – Pingu / All characters

Video games

*''Pingu: A Barrel of Fun!'' (1997) – Pingu, Robby *''Fun! Fun! Pingu'' (1999) – Pingu, Penguins *''

'' (2008) – Additional voices

Live-action

*''

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

'' (TV series) (1965, 1990, 1992) – Swiss Commentator (voice) *''Le mie prigioni'' (TV series) (1968) – Il segretario *''Ogni Regno'' (1969) – Narrator (voice) *''La freccia nera'' (TV series) (1969) – Un alabardiere *''Durante l'estate'' (1971) – Voice dubbing (uncredited)

Other works

Milano Centrale railway station Milano Centrale ( it, Stazione Milano Centrale) is the main railway station of the city of Milan, Italy, and is the largest railway station in Europe by volume. The station is a terminus and located at the northern end of central Milan. It was o ...

(1985–2008) – Announcer

References

External links

* * 1937 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Italian male actors 21st-century Italian male actors Italian male television actors Italian male voice actors Male actors from Milan {{Italy-tv-bio-stub